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Breath Therapeutics appoints Renu Gupta as Executive Director

November 28, 2017

Top-tier drug development executive joins Board of Directors

Important reinforcement for development of lead program in Bronchiolitis Obliterans

Munich, Frankfurt, Boston - Breath Therapeutics B.V. (Breath), a company developing advanced drug-aerosol therapeutics in pulmonary orphan indications, announced today the appointment of Renu Gupta, M.D. to its Board of Directors. Dr. Gupta will join the Board of Directors as an executive member.

With more than 25 years of research and development, regulatory and senior management experience within the biopharmaceutical industry, Dr. Gupta adds top-tier drug development expertise to the Company. This provides substantial strengthening for Breath's lead program BOSTON, to develop L-CsA (Liposomal Cyclosporine A), the first inhaled immunosuppressive drug to treat Bronchiolitis Obliterans (BOS), a lethal orphan respiratory disease with very high unmet medical need for an effective pharmacotherapy.

"We welcome Renu Gupta to our Board of Directors. Her outstanding experience with respiratory orphan indications, inhaled drugs and liposomal drug formulations is of inestimable value to Breath" said Dr. Jens Stegemann, Chief Executive Officer of Breath Therapeutics. "As our clinical and inhaled product development team is currently preparing for a Phase 3 trial with L-CsA, and also evaluating further inhaled drug candidates, Dr. Gupta's appointment is not only an important augmentation, but also of perfect timing."

Besides her functions with Breath, Dr. Gupta is currently Principal and CEO of Global Bio-Pharma, and member of the Board of Directors of Corbus Pharmaceuticals. Previously, she served as the Executive Vice President Development and Chief Medical Officer of Insmed Incorporated (NASDAQ: INSM). Throughout her career, she was - among others - Vice President and Head of U.S. Clinical Research and Development and Global Head of Cardiovascular, Metabolics, Endocrine and Gastroenterology Research at Novartis. Dr. Gupta also spent 10 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), where she was responsible for clinical research, business development, plus global development and marketing strategies for the infectious diseases and immunology franchises. Her leadership experience in biopharmaceutical research and development, includes regulatory strategy design and science. She has been instrumental in designing innovative strategies and development pathways to advance targets; including rare disease indications, forming productive private-public sector partnerships, raising capital, and ultimately advancing molecules from drug discovery through approvals in the major global markets.

About Bronchiolitis Obliterans Syndrome (BOS)

Bronchiolitis Obliterans is a chronic rejection of the allograft following lung transplantation. Its pathophysiology is characterized by severe inflammatory fibrosis affecting the bronchioles of the small respiratory airways. This irreversible process leads to progressive narrowing of the airway lumen and finally to severe infection, respiratory failure and death. BOS is the main cause for poor survival rates of lung transplant recipients compared to other solid organ transplantations. Of more than 25 000 people currently living with a lung transplant, around half will die within the next five years, mainly related to BOS.

About Breath Therapeutics

Breath is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company specializing in advanced and first-in-class inhalation therapies for severe respiratory diseases with high unmet medical need. For its clinical development, the Company is using new proprietary drug formulations optimized for inhaled administration with exclusively licensed, high performance nebulizers. Breath is focusing on integrated therapy solutions in the interaction between diagnostic, therapy and eHealth therapy monitoring.

Breath's lead development program BOSTON is addressing the treatment of Bronchiolitis Obliterans in patients after lung transplantation. With proceeds from a USD 46 million Series A financing by top-tier European investors Sofinnova, Gimv and Gilde Healthcare, the Company is currently initiating Phase 3 studies in the US and Europe. PARI Pharma, a worldwide leading nebulizer company, is a strategic development partner and licensor for the eFlow( nebulizer technology for Breath's BOSTON program.

Breath Therapeutics is Germany and US based with offices in Frankfurt, Munich and Boston.